<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Birds and the ... Murder Hornets by purple_bookcover</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29027829">The Birds and the ... Murder Hornets</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_bookcover/pseuds/purple_bookcover'>purple_bookcover</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hades (Video Game 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anal Fingering, First Time, M/M, Nipple Torture, Rimming, Rope Bondage, Under-negotiated Kink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:47:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,505</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29027829</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_bookcover/pseuds/purple_bookcover</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanatos wants his first time with Zagreus to be perfect, absolutely perfect. But he can't practice this the way he meticulously practices everything else... Unless... Well... It is pretty obvious how much Ares is into him and the God of War is surely experienced. Perhaps Than can learn a thing or two...</p><p>Or: Thanatos learns the birds and the murder hornets from Ares.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ares/Thanatos (Hades Video Game), Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Birds and the ... Murder Hornets</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They did not need to rest. But, then, they did not need to love, either. They did not need to trace patterns on each other’s bare chests, thrilling from the mere feel of the heat of another body. </p><p>Yet they did. Lying there in Zagreus’s room, legs entangled beneath the sheets, Thanatos and Zagreus indulged in each other’s presence as they had so many times before. It never went farther than these light touches, these dancing little brushes of fingertips against collar bones and cheeks and the dips of hips, not yet at least, but Thanatos knew the moment was fast approaching when it would. </p><p>Even this morning, Zagreus brushed Thanatos’s hair away from his face and shimmied his whole body closer. Thanatos had to grit his teeth as Zagreus’s heat washed over him. He trembled – in part with eagerness, but in some other part with fear. </p><p>“I should go,” he said. </p><p>Zagreus’s smile withered at the corners before he caught it. “Of course. You have your duties.”</p><p>“Yes,” Thanatos said. “I’m sorry. I’ve stayed as long as I can. I’ll return later.”</p><p>“I know you will,” Zagreus said. He leaned in for a kiss, just a gentle brush of lips, never taking more than Than offered, infinitely patient as they navigated this strange twist in their relationship. As hot as they found themselves burning for each other now, Zagreus never pushed the matter when Thanatos said he needed to leave or sleep or whatever it was that time. </p><p>Zagreus sighed when Thanatos rolled out of the bed and started reassembling his armor and clothing. They’d touched and stroked and found pleasure that way, but Thanatos knew Zagreus hungered for more. <i>He</i> hungered for more, but it wasn’t right yet. Thanatos was clumsy and unpracticed. It wasn’t perfect yet. And Zagreus deserved perfection. </p><p>Thanatos was determined to deliver it to him, but he could not practice this the way he practiced everything else. Being proficient at his job was one thing. He could hone his skill, pick apart every motion until it was precise. When it came to intimacy, however … how was Thanatos to practice or hone or perfect that? How was he to craft himself into everything Zagreus deserved? </p><p>The question needled at him, prickling jabs picking at his mind, but he had no answer and the longer he pushed it away the more urgent and pressing it felt. They could not wait forever, not with this desire building and building between them. Eventually, it would break either way and Thanatos would simply have to do his best to perform.</p><p>But not yet. Not today. Today, he could focus on his job, his unending duty. </p><p>Thus, he finished dressing, leaned down to indulge in another kiss and flashed out of his boyfriend’s bedroom and toward the surface to continue his deadly work.</p>
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>#</p>
</div>The souls awaiting Thanatos on the battlefield greeted him with terror. They usually did, but the fear lay especially thick and potent on battlefields such as this. So much violence. When Thanatos found these unfortunates, they often still clung to the horror of their final moments, the pain ravaging their lost bodies.<p>He soothed each in turn, eased their minds and souls so they could slip into the rivers of the underworld and find a place of rest, perhaps even peace.</p><p>“You bring them merciful release, yet do you ever pause to wonder if they deserve it?”</p><p>Thanatos very nearly sighed as he faced Ares on the battlefield. His associate often haunted these places, reveling in the very things Thanatos sought to soothe away. </p><p>“Breathe deeply of this potent fragrance, Thanatos,” Ares said. “Ah, does it not set your very soul ablaze? The perfume of blood has always held a singular beauty, I say.” </p><p>Thanatos tried to ignore the tang of iron all around him. Blood and swords had a similar taste in his mouth, sharp, cold edges biting at the tongue. “It is as you say, Lord Ares.” </p><p>“Come, no need for the formalities, Thanatos,” Ares said. He stepped close enough to sling an arm around Thanatos’s shoulders so they could survey the carnage together. “We are the closest of associates in our worthy work. May we not converse as brothers in this task?” </p><p>Thanatos selected his next words carefully. “I fear we come here for opposing purposes.” </p><p>“Not at all,” Ares said. “You see, we are complimentary. I incite a beautiful bloom of destruction. I plant a forest of death. And you, my dear associate, you arrive to pluck the ripe fruit from the branches, to savor the succor I have laid before you like the most eloquent of banquets.” </p><p>“Yes, well, it is … noble work.” </p><p>“It is far beyond noble.” Ares waved at hillsides slick and dark with blood, hillsides shivering with the moans and screams of dying men begging for release. “It enlivens the soul, enriches the soil of our sacred natures. Only through violence is beauty achieved, for what is more beautiful than struggle, than desperation lighting the eyes of mortals, than screams that ring out like holy supplication?”</p><p>Thanatos wanted to vomit. “It … defies my reckoning.”</p><p>“Exactly!” Ares thumped him on the chest. “You feel it. It stirs in your soul. I can tell, Thanatos. You are a kindred spirit, after all.”</p><p>Thanatos scowled at that suggestion.</p><p>“We are one and the same, two sides of a coin,” Ares said. “You cannot watch a sunset without first enduring the night. Likewise, no mortal can experience the soothing touch of everlasting rest without first enduring the sweetness of noble death, that most regal of human experiences, that king among mortal reckoning.” He sighed, long and lusty. “Oh, but sometimes I do envy them. What ecstasy it must be to feel your flesh stripped from your body and your heart’s blood pouring out in a glorious expulsion.” </p><p>Thanatos shifted under Ares’s heavy arm as he went on. How long did the god intend on ruminating? He clutched Thanatos’s shoulder, holding him tightly in his excitement – excitement that, Thanatos noticed with horror, was not confined to his hands. Indeed, Ares stood boldly, brazenly erect as he surveyed the battlefield.</p><p>Thanatos looked away, looked anywhere else. This was not the first time Ares had become so … enamored with a field of death, but it was embarrassing and horrible each and every time. It was one thing to know one’s nature as a god; it was another to embody it so … so completely. </p><p>“My apologies, Thanatos. Have I gone on too long?” Ares said. </p><p>“I-it is just that... You are... You...” Thanatos could not bring himself to say it. These things were difficult enough to navigate with Zagreus, someone he loved and trusted, but trying to discuss it with Ares was simply impossible. </p><p>“Ah, it seems I’ve become quite overcome by our discussion here today,” Ares said. “Mmm, but I daresay I do not despise it.” </p><p>He reached under his chiton then, shamelessly stroking himself with the hand not around Than. </p><p>“W-what are you doing?” Thanatos said. “A-Ares, please, we are still on the surface.”</p><p>Ares laughed. “They cannot see us. And even if they could, I care not what mortals may think. They should be inspired and honored to witness me thus. Come, Thanatos, you ought to join me.”</p><p>“I-I cannot,” Thanatos said. “I am not even...” </p><p>“A conundrum easily fixed,” Ares said. He slipped his hand off of Thanatos’s shoulders and beneath his chiton, palming over his cock. </p><p>Thanatos gasped, pulling away, but Ares simply followed. He stopped stroking himself as he pursued Thanatos, walking him back until he struck some toppled pillar. Ares boxed him in, holding him by the chin while his other hand rubbed over his crotch. </p><p>“Come, Thanatos, you know how I’ve admired you,” Ares said. “Our blood runs hot. Let us not waste it.” </p><p>Thanatos did indeed know of Ares’s “admiration.” Some days, he feared it was closer to an obsession. Ares would do his work naked sometimes, pleasuring himself before Thanatos while crying out praise for his “associate.” It was downright humiliating. </p><p>But it was also, potentially, a solution.</p><p>Thanatos hated the thought the moment it struck him, yet he could not dislodge it. Could <i>this</i> be the answer to his problem? Might this actually offer him the salvation he craved? Certainly, Ares was experienced. And the way he adored Thanatos … he would likely be delighted to display every bit of his skill. Just one time. If Thanatos could endure just one time perhaps he could glean the information and technique he needed in order to be with Zagreus as he deserved. </p><p>It was a horrible solution, but as Ares went on stroking him, bringing him easily to hardness, the idea took on weight and strength.</p><p>“I see you relenting,” Ares said. He drew in close, dragging his nose up Thanatos’s neck as he inhaled him. “I smell your desire. Give in to me, Thanatos. I shall bring pleasure such as you have never known.” </p><p>He wanted to say no. Gods, why wasn’t he saying no? But Ares’s hand was on his bare cock now, so swift and sure and hard, pumping in a way that had Thanatos rolling his hips and gasping for breath. </p><p>Suddenly, Ares withdrew his hand. Before Thanatos could sort out what was happening, Ares grabbed his nipple and twisted so hard Thanatos cried out, water springing to his eyes. </p><p>“Mmm, yes,” Ares said. “You see, the pain is all a part of it. It is like spice on a meal. Without it, our play will prove dull and flavorless.” </p><p>Thanatos hated the sound of that, yet his body trembled, cock aching without Ares’s hand on it. He turned Thanatos around and tore at his belts and clothing. Thanatos breathed hard against the column as Ares worked, shivering as the wind of the surface world tickled over his suddenly bare skin. </p><p>Then Ares wrenched Thanatos’s arms behind his back. Rope wound around Than’s wrists and chest and even his neck. Gods, where had Ares gotten rope? What did he mean to do with it? He may have respected Thanatos as his associate and equal, but that did not in any way preclude violence, as Thanatos’s bruised nipple could already attest to.</p><p>Yet Ares did no worse than tie Thanatos’s arms behind his back, taking his time making a criss cross design on Thanatos’s chest that secured everything in place. He stepped back, apparently surveying his work while Thanatos just stood there hard and confused and tied up. </p><p>Thanatos listened with trembling to the shuffling behind him. Armor fell to the ground with thuds that echoed in Thanatos’s chest. Cloth whispered promises that left Thanatos’s mouth dry. </p><p>When Ares returned, he pressed his bare skin against Thanatos’s and spoke directly into his ear.</p><p>“You need not fear me, Thanatos,” Ares said. “We are of a kind, you and I, born of the same nature, the same need. You see, the world craves us. It hungers for us. These mortals ache for violence. They offer their blood to us in glorious supplication. It would be disgraceful to disregard their worship, for you and I, Thanatos, we are deserving of worship.” </p><p>He ran his hand over the swell of Thanatos’s ass as he said this, grabbing and massaging in turn. Ares crowded in, his cock heavy against Thanatos’s leg. He reached a hand around and Thanatos sucked in a breath as Ares’s fingers grazed his nipple. He did not pull this time, however, merely touched before skimming lower, over the ropes he’d tied, over the ridges of Thanatos’s torso and all the way to his cock. </p><p>Ares made some little noise in the back of his throat as he stroked Thanatos idly. “Quite easily excited,” he purred at Thanatos’s ear.</p><p>Thanatos would have responded that Ares was the one who’d gotten hard from the sight of a field of dead bodies, but he feared to attempt speech with Ares’s hand working up and down him in light strokes. </p><p>“Mmm, I’ve longed to care for you myself,” Ares said. His breath puffed hot against Thanatos’s neck. “You shall know bliss you’ve only imagined, Thanatos, the indescribable joy of flame meeting ice, wave meeting shoreline, sword meeting flesh. You shall soar and sing, all by my hand.” </p><p>Each word pressed a little closer. By the end of his speech, Ares kissed down Thanatos’s neck, sucking on his skin, teeth grazing as he went along. The sensations buzzed within Thanatos, gathering like shades all clustered up and eager and grasping for him. He could not deny them long. His hips jerked almost of their own accord, trying to meet Ares’s too-gentle pressure. </p><p>Ares withdrew his hand in response. “Not too hastily,” Ares said. “I mean to savor every ounce of you.” </p><p>True to his word, his kisses trailed down, lower and lower until Ares was sliding to his knees and licking his way back up Thanatos’s thighs. And then deeper, to a place that made Thanatos yelp and jerk. </p><p>Ares laughed. “Did you think I would not drink deeply of you once I had the chance, Thanatos? Be still so I might sup.” </p><p>And he dove back in, gripping Thanatos’s ass to keep him still as his tongue swirled around his rim. Nerves Thanatos had never even considered flared bright within him. His cock strained toward his belly, begging for touch. But Ares seemed fixated on his current task, at least until he pulled away with a pop and slapped Thanatos’s ass in appreciation. </p><p>“Divine,” he said. “Just as I presumed.” </p><p>Some frantic little corner of Thanatos’s mind tried to cling to this knowledge, to hold on to the memory of what Ares had just done. Effective. Direct. If he could only keep it stored somewhere for safe keeping until he could bring it to Zagreus. </p><p>Ares gave him no reprieve in which to gather his thoughts, though. He surged back to his feet, grinding his cock against Thanatos. Ares shoved his fingers into Thanatos’s mouth, using his free hand to stroke in the meantime. </p><p>“Tell me what you want,” Ares said. “Beg me for what you need, Thanatos.” </p><p>Thanatos whined. How could he possibly respond? He didn’t know what he wanted. As humiliating as that was, he’d only even let this unfold in the hopes of possibly figuring it out. </p><p>That whimper seemed to satisfy Ares, however, who tore his fingers free of Than’s mouth. He stopped stroking again, cruelly, but his other hand went right to Thanatos’s hole, feeling around the place his tongue had already set alight. </p><p>One finger squeezed in, swift and unrelenting. All Thanatos could do was breathe around the intrusion as Ares started pumping, already curling, searching. Whatever he found made Thanatos’s thighs tremble and knocked at the back of his knees to topple him. Ares refused to let him fall, hugging Thanatos against his chest as he went on exploring with his finger. </p><p>That arm around Thanatos’s chest put Ares in range of his nipples again. The God of War seemed obsessed with that particular pain point. He tugged at one, not hard, but Thanatos doubted the gentleness would last. Indeed, just when Thanatos thought he might be getting used to all the stimulation – in both locations – Ares grabbed. And pulled. </p><p>Thanatos groaned, gritting his teeth, back curling into and away from the sensation. It was like a sunbeam making its way through the dark of the underworld, bright and scorching and impossible to look at. Thanatos squeezed his eyes shut, breath ragged even when Ares relented. </p><p>It almost caused him to miss it when Ares got another finger inside him. Then both of those fingers curled, brushing against something inside Thanatos that knocked the breath and voice right out of his throat. </p><p>“Yes, Thanatos,” Ares said. “Cry out your desire for me. It will ring out over the battlefield. It will echo in the hearts of these mortals. They will know that gods are among them.” </p><p>Thanatos didn’t feel particularly god-like with Ares’s fingers buried in his ass shaking something loose with each touch, yet he had little doubt those dying mortals could indeed hear him crying out from Ares’s ministrations. Ares pressed on that thing inside him and his cock leaked, the fluid impossible to stop. Thanatos strained against the ropes binding him, but they would not give way so he could reach himself. He was entirely at Ares’s mercy. </p><p>Whatever mercy the God of War might have. </p><p>That seemed to be little, especially as Ares twisted viciously on a nipple and Thanatos shouted and bucked. Even as the pain burned inside him, a hum arrived in its wake, a thrum that excited his every nerve. </p><p>“One and the same,” Ares rasped against his neck. Only then did Thanatos realize he was grinding against him, rubbing his cock on Thanatos’s thigh for some sort of friction. “One and the same,” he said again. “Pleasure and pain, death and ecstasy. There is no difference. Do you see now? Do you see how delicious violence can be?” </p><p>He twisted again to punctuate his point and Thanatos jerked his whole body, trying to fuck up into or against anything, anything he could reach. He found nothing but air and the brush of the column. And still Ares’s fingers pounded inside him, pressing relentlessly against that spot, that terrible, wonderful spot. </p><p>Thanatos twisted and shuddered and writhed on Ares’s hand, but no matter where he turned, he could not escape the storm of sensation. It thundered through him, descending on him like a ravenous mouth that meant to consume him, to tear out every bone and muscle until nothing remained but a hollow shell. Surely, this was not how it was meant to be. Surely, this was not how it would be with Zagreus, sweet, kind Zagreus. No, they could not do things this way, with the twisting, the biting, the rope digging into Thanatos’s arms as he fought to release himself. </p><p>For now, however, Thanatos was helpless on Ares’s hand. Ares gave up torturing Thanatos’s nipples, grabbing Thanatos’s hip to force him to hold more still. Then Ares focused his attention, pressing, pressing, squeezing the pleasure out of Thanatos. </p><p>When he stroked Thanatos’s cock, there was no more holding back, no more preventing that beleaguered dam within him from breaking. Thanatos threw his body into Ares’s hold, crying out as something within him snapped and his body released all at once, a cascade of whimpering pleasure so aggressive Thanatos was kneeling on the ground by the end, incapable of standing. His own cum was on his torso, on his thighs. His body still twitched with echoes of pleasure. </p><p>And still Ares was not done. </p><p>He grabbed Thanatos by the hair to wield him and shoved his cock into Than’s mouth. Ares fucked swiftly between Thanatos’s lips and it was all Than could do to merely keep from choking. </p><p>Blessedly, Ares did not last long, filling Thanatos’s mouth after only a few brutal pumps. Thanatos swallowed around the mess that slid salty and thick down his throat, head and body reeling from the experience. </p><p>Ares sat behind him and meticulously untied the ropes when he’d finished. He seemed so steady and composed already, while Thanatos wobbled even as he sat. The ropes left marks on his skin as they fell away, little red scrapes where Thanatos had strained against them. The moment they were gone, his body tried to sink down, but Ares caught him, pulling Thanatos in against his chest. </p><p>It was intensely strange after what they’d just done to sit there with his back against Ares’s chest. Ares wrapped his arms around Thanatos and nestled his nose against Thanatos’s neck. </p><p>“What beautiful discord we’ve sown this day,” Ares said. “Thanatos, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I. I hope you saw how lovely we could be when together like this. Tell me, did it stir your soul?” </p><p>It had certainly stirred something, but Thanatos doubted it was his soul. He made a noncommittal noise, hoping he sounded and looked too exhausted for coherent words. </p><p>Ares seemed ready to believe him. “Mmm, I am glad, my associate, for none other could join me in this way and witness the true poetry of destruction.” </p><p>Ares went on, but Thanatos found it harder and harder to follow. He was sinking, sliding back below, away from the mortal realm where he did not belong. It meant he would have to face Zagreus soon and with his new knowledge … well, they certainly wouldn’t do most of <i>this</i>, but Thanatos dared believe there was little reason for him to fear whatever they might do instead. Ares was obsessed with death, but Zagreus did not look at Thanatos that way, did not see him merely as an expression of his basic nature and function. </p><p>“Goodbye,” Ares said, somewhere outside him, voice fading away as the surface world slipped through Thanatos’s fingers. “Until next time.” </p><p>Gods, how Thanatos feared what “next time” might mean.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was ridiculously fun to write. Ares is such a dweeb.</p><p>--</p><p>I'm on <a href="https://twitter.com/purplebookcover">Twitter</a> (18+ please).</p><p>I respond to every comment. Thank you, friends!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>